


Marinette Saying she is Marinette

by Dotted_Faerie



Series: The Casserole [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Parent Audrey Bourgeois, Chloé Bourgeois Needs a Hug, Coming Out, Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Intentional Misgendering, Misgendering, Nepotism, Shitty teachers, Some Fluff, Some angst, Trans, Trans Female Character, Trans Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Transphobia, but better safe than sorry, debatably hurt/comfort?, if you read the other fic you might know how the class reacts, im new to this please educate me on tagging things, its more along the lines of neglect and manipulation, marinette's supportive parents, mentions of deadnaming, the dead name is never used though, transphobia from ignorance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25634296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dotted_Faerie/pseuds/Dotted_Faerie
Summary: Got motivated from "When Marinette Said she was Marinette" to go ahead and write her saying so.please comment if you can! Anything helps, I am still new to this
Relationships: Chloe Bourgeois & Nino Lahiffe & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois & Nino Lahiffe, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Classmates, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug's Parents, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Nino Lahiffe
Series: The Casserole [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857349
Comments: 2
Kudos: 56





	1. Marinette, not who they thought she was.

Marinette was clumsy, shy, and awkward, she’d gladly admit. She was loud, excitable, and cared quickly, she’d also concede. She’d really only argue if she was called something she was not, be it a liar, a bully, or someone you confused her with. There was an exception, and it had burned in her chest for a long time, since before she had words to try to explain the burn… since before she had known that the burn was not normal.

  
  


The one thing Marinette had been wrongly called, but not been able to bring herself to fight, was ‘boy’. Though, perhaps that is not fair. It was more than just ‘boy’. It was ‘he’, it was ‘him’, it was calling something of hers ‘his’, calling her ‘handsome’, or ‘young man’. She had not been able to gather enough confidence to stop herself from being called any of these, even with her years of having words. It had taken a month of confidence building, another month of planning, and a full month of getting the plan ready, but she was finally ready to change that, since she did not think she could handle more than the seven years she had already spent with them being so confidently incorrect.

  
  
She’d been sewing, a hobby she was thankful her family, unlike some others, was still willing to let her do while she had been mistaken for a boy. It had taken many nights sneakily staying up, and hiding pieces of fabric and clothes she had not told her parents’ the plan for, but she figured the simplest way to let them see they were wrong, was to wear her dress. She was young, and new at it, and was very aware that it was not as beautiful as the ones she had longingly stared at in the store. That, she consoled herself, would change as she got to practice without a need for stealth.

Her dress was made from pieces of the clothes she had been made to wear when her parents were mistaken about her identity. Parts of a suit from one Easter, which might have been bearable if not for the ‘handsome boy’ comments, a pair of shorts that she was fine with, except for the texture of the tags, and the insistence that the one wearing those shorts was ‘a cute young man!’. Really, she admitted to herself, it was not the clothing that had bothered her, but how they insisted she was something she was not while in it. The clothes had been cut apart and sewn into a patchwork dress, with the straps being from the terribly textured ties from the last two Easters that her family bothered to dress formally for. It was black, mostly consistent shades of it, from the suit, and the patches were vibrant colors. She had been able to keep the places where the dress could not be black to a minimum, and had been able to make it almost look intentional where it was not black.

She woke up early, stressed, but prepared. While ignoring the clothes that she had placed on her dresser the night before, to maintain the illusion that everything was okay, she dug in her closet and put on her dress and some comfortable tennis shoes, feeling her heart swell.  
  


Her hair was shorter than she wanted, her parents had been willing to let her have it long, but the school dress code disagreed, since they were still mistaken about her gender. Trying not to be upset at her hair being so much shorter than she wanted it, she bit her lip as she carefully tied ribbons in her hair, creating two very short pigtails. She had practiced for ages, on herself, and on the doll she had convinced her parents to get her for Christmas the previous year, and they came out looking pretty nice. Marinette stayed upstairs for a little longer, calming her racing heart before going downstairs to the kitchen.


	2. Marinette, The Baker's Daughter

She did not intentionally trip, but of course she did, making noise, and getting her parent’s attention earlier than she had expected to. This alone was panic inducing, but her fears of the dress being damaged make those worries skyrocket until she was nearly in tears. She had not managed to stop them fully before she felt the pounding of her parents’ feet on the stairs caused by them running upstairs from the bakery, coming to make sure she was alright. They saw her, and Tom immediately picked her up, asking if she was alright, and hugging her close while she calmed down. As Marinette confirmed she was alright, and he sat her back down, her father started a sentence with a name that was not Marinette’s. He immediately stopped when her eyes got more watery, and him and Sabine gave Marinette a large hug again, waiting for her to be able to speak.

“You two are the best parents I could hope for, but you did get one thing wrong. All this time you thought you were raising a son, you weren’t. My name is Marinette, I am your daughter… and please let me be your daughter forever.”

Sabine and Tom hugged Marinette yet again, consoling and reassuring her that she would always be their child, and that they were glad Marinette was able to tell them that she was Marinette, only separating when Sabine started speaking.

“Well, since you woke up early enough to have a real breakfast, why don’t you come down to the bakery and have one with us! You can tell us about the dress you made while you eat, and we can plan to make sure everyone recognizes their mistake in as safe a way as possible. While you’re in school, I’ll start the paperwork and scheduling to get what you want or need done set up, including the school paperwork.” Mrs. Dupain-Cheng playfully pushed aside her husband to pick up her daughter, only for Mr. Dupain-Cheng to pick up both of the most important women in his life, and run down the stairs while they all laughed. 

“Maman? Are you sure I can have a bakery breakfast?”

“Yes Marinette, you can have two pastries and we’ll get you a croissant sandwich made!”

“Usually bakery breakfasts are for special days… I don’t want to bother you.” Sabine’s gentle smile melted into concern for her daughter, as Tom entered with the promised croissant sandwiches. Looking between the two, and piecing together what he had heard, he joined the conversation.

“My little croissant, Marinette, you being brave enough to let us, and others, know that we were wrong about you **makes** today a special day! In fact, it might be almost as special as your birthday, though no presents for you today… until after school!” He had tried to fake a stern attitude, but as Marinette gave him puppy dog eyes through a mouthful of croissant sandwich, he couldn’t maintain it.

“Tom! That was supposed to be a surprise! We’re going to take you clothes shopping, because while your dress is beautiful-"

“Especially for a first one, our little crème puff is an artist!”

“While your dress is beautiful, you do need more than just one thing of clothing, and we know you probably do not want to keep some of the clothes that you associate with us misgendering you, dear. So, we’ll go by some stores, including some fabric shops, so you can make other dresses for yourself in the future too! If you want, we can even get some hair accessories for our favorite daughter.” Sabine’s smile grew wider as she kept talking, showing her excitement and happiness that Marinette had let them know she was Marinette.

Tom, hearing a bell ring as a string of customers entered the store, looked at his watch, and nearly panicked at the time. He ran to man the register, leaving Sabine to notice that Marinette only had 10 minutes before her class started. As she let Marinette know this, Sabine’s daughter shoved the rest of her croissant sandwich into her mouth, and quickly cleaned her spot, grabbing her backpack and standing up. Sabine, smiling at Marinette’s excitement, went to the bakery kitchen, grabbed a bag, and stuffed it full of pastries for Marinette, before walking out the door of the bakery with her daughter, stopping only when Tom shouted, “Have a good day Marinette!”


	3. Marinette, the Shield With Spikes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is seen by her classmates...

Normally Marinette would be getting on the bus to her school, since it was a bit farther than her parents felt comfortable letting her walk along, and they usually both were working the bakery in the mornings. However, Sabine kept walking with Marinette this day, and smiled down at her daughter before asking, “Do you want to walk with me to your school today! I just want to make sure that, if needed, you can contact someone to have us take you home early today. If it gets stressful, or people are mean, do not feel a need to hesitate. Me and your papa will come, and we’ll help make sure they realize they are being bullies.” She had Marinette dutifully recite her maman’s cellphone number, and the number to the bakery, just to make sure she had them memorized, in case there was an error with the system. 

Given how often Marinette’s clumsiness had placed her in the nurse’s office, Sabine testing Marinette on this was more a formality than anything else. Still, Marinette thought, it was a nice way to indicate that if things don’t go well, she would be supported by her family at least. 

They got to Marinette’s school just as the bell to be in class rang, and Marinette tried not to sigh. Sabine gave her a hug, and a note that she had written in advance, looking and smiling gently at her daughter. She fiddled with the hair ribbons under guise of ‘straightening’ them, but they both knew it was an attempt to make her and Marinette both feel calmer. When she could stall no more, she kissed Marinette’s forehead, and watched her daughter walk to class. 

Moments after her daughter entered the classroom door, Sabine Cheng put on her game face, and got ready to fight for her Marinette, walking confidently in to the office of the Principal’s secretary.

Marinette’s lateness was not a surprise, even though she rode a bus to school each day, it would often run late. It ran so late so frequently, that the few days it did not run behind schedule, she was late because she was enjoying her only chance to talk to friends from outside her class. Nino was one of those friends she only got to see on those rare mornings, though sometimes his teacher would turn a blind eye and let him sit at his long time bffs’ table, where he would sandwich himself between Chloe and Marinette, and the trio of best friends would practically lay on top of each other while eating their lunches, on mornings when Chloe’s mom was not present at least. 

When Chloe’s mom was present, Chloe had to activate what the trio called “bully mode”, because it was the only way her mom would sit with Chloe for lunch. Bully mode entailed loudly telling everyone to clear away because the Mayor’s wife was gonna sit ‘right There, and she can’t have commoners in her way!’ The class had known Chloe’s true self for long enough, that they knew she did not enjoy doing this, but that she would get in trouble if she didn’t. For every lunch where Chloe’s mom was present, it was almost a full week for Chloe to stop being jumpy, and it made Marinette and Nino furious that no one did anything about Chloe being terrified. 

Once, the first year of classes, those two members of the trio had tried to get it addressed, talking quietly to their teacher after class in hopes of figuring out some way to make Chloe less worried. In exchange for their concern, their teacher sent them to the principal’s office, and they had to stay inside during play time for a whole month. That alone they would have been fine with, because at least they had tried to help Chloe, and it would only hurt them. They were Chloe’s best friends, yes, but Chloe did have other friends! Alix and Rose were both very close to her, and even got to have sleepovers with her, and some famous model girl apparently, so she would not be alone outside… Instead, word must have somehow reached someone Nino and Marinette did not want it to though… since the next month was full of Chloe alternating between Bully mode and post bully mode, but no visits from her mother to explain it. By the time the month ended, the trio knew the lesson that they were meant to learn. “Don’t speak about something you can’t stop.” The class forgave Chloe as she grew comfortable again, slowly, but her mom only come to the school twice in the two years since then.

Marinette’s mind had unintentionally jumped to these tangents to avoid listening to the harsh and loud words being said by her teachers and peers, but snapped back to consciousness as the teacher slapped a meterstick on her desk and shouted for silence. Then, the teacher spoke, pointing to Marinette, after calling her a name that they had assumed to be her own.   
“-what is the meaning of this blatant disruption of class! You are creating a distracting learning environment!”

Marinette, hoping she had misunderstood the true meaning, extended her hand with the note from her maman towards the teacher. 

“Sorry I am late, maman walked me to school and gave me a note…” The teacher’s face grew even more red as Marinette spoke, and as she took the note from Marinette, she pointed to the door and spoke as loudly as she could without it being a yell. 

“Principal’s office. Now, young MAN.” Marinette tried to hold in her tears, to stop herself from giving in so easily, her hands in the pockets of her dress curled into fists. She looked at her classmates, just to see faces of confusion, and one blonde with a calculating look. She tried to walk past the teacher, to go sit at her desk, but the yelling started again, and it was too much. She turned and ran out the door, but felt someone running after her, so speed up from fear, only to trip and tumble to the floor, scraping her knee and elbow.


	4. Marinette, friend deciding

The person who had been running after her tripped and fell over Marinette, landing on their face, hard enough that they nearly started crying. Marinette, used to falling, stood up slowly, trying to ignore the aches of her knee, pride, elbow and heart. She offered a hand to the one who had been pursuing her in the hallway to see one Chloe Bourgeois, nose slightly bloodied from the fall, smiling, with concern in her eyes. She had been friends with Marinette for two years now, she was accustomed to falling and tripping because of Marinette falling and tripping, and if you asked Nino, he’d laugh and agree the same was true for him. As Marinette pulled Chloe to stand with her, and tried to ignore the tear in her dress, easily fixable but it still hurt to see her work damaged, Chloe started speaking excitedly.

“You’re a girl? Sorry I was wrong for so long! This means you can come to my sleepovers and we can have popcorn and watch movies and lay in piles, and you can help me and Alix beat Rose to stop her from picking Cinderella as her movie every week, she’s too good at the games we play to decide whose movie we watch. Nino still can’t come, because he is a boy, but maybe he and our guy friends can have a sleepover in another hotel room, and we can spend the time before bed in a lounge together! Nino and Nathaniel and Marc and maybe Ivan! That pretty Mylene girl, the new one in Nino’s class! She could join us too! We could make it a big big sleepover with everyone! We can’t do it regularly, it will just have to be the girl sleepover and us making sure Nino doesn’t feel left out, but we can do it! We can get matching dresses and hair thingies, like Alix and Rose have! We’re gonna have so much fun, even if our teacher is a big dummy for not listening to you yet.” It is very clear who Marinette got her habit of information dumping during extreme emotions from, though both parties involved would blush and deny it if you asked, even decades later. 

The moment of Marinette finally being calmed by her friend’s excitement was ruined when Chloe’s mom entered the school. It was early for a lunch visitor, but she got special permissions on account of her… well. Everything. She would not pick up Chloe yet for lunch on a normal day, just go around talking to teachers and workers she did not see as too far below her Bougie highness, seemingly spreading fear everywhere she went. The change as Chloe saw her mom was the difference in watching a car race, and watching a car crash. The sight of her mom was enough to make her shaky, enough that Marinette held her to try and steady her. As Mrs. Bourgeois saw them though, she got visibly angry and her walk turned quickly into stomps as Marinette tensed to try to prepare for more yelling. The stress was too much for Chloe though, and as her mother got closer and closer, her shaking was too much for even Marinette to steady. She collapsed to the floor, and Marinette immediately dived after to see if she was okay. Chloe was fine, but frightened… though her mom, seemingly deliberately, ignored both parts of that.   
“YOU (slurs Marinette spent years trying to feel less hurt by being called), how Dare you assault my daughter. If I had known that this school allowed (the slurs again, but with a bit more variety, to match the increased venom) to harass their students that are Actually girls, I would never have let her go to public school. You even gave her a bloody nose… before pushing her away at the sight of someone who might stop you from hurting her more.” The first yell from Mrs. Bourgeois had accomplished what she seemed to want it to do, drawing the attention of everyone in the halls, and the attention of some classes closer to the entrance. The teachers of those classes thought they were being subtle with their doors opening to hear the Mayor’s wife yell at some kid, and the people inside both the principal’s office and the principal’s secretary’s office had all exited their offices and were approaching the entrance. Somewhere in the yelling, she heard one teacher say something about getting the nurse. She was too busy trying not to collapse, but was inching closer to failing from how much she was being over stimulated. She could not speak, words were not an option, and her friend did one of the bravest things she’d ever seen.   
Chloe yelled back at her mom. “She did not do anything! I just… didn’t eat enough breakfast and was woozy. She got kicked out of class, despite not doing anything to get in trouble, I ran after her to make sure she was okay, and I forgot that she’s clumsy, so running behind her gets me hurt too! See! We both are hurt!” She insisted, while pointing at Marinette’s bloodied knee and elbow. Unfortunately, this both angered Mrs. Bourgeois even more and gave ammunition.   
“He is not a girl. And I know your dietician, and I know your activities. You ate your breakfast, there is Nothing that would justify you falling, unless he pushed you. And obviously, he must be trying to do more harm to you. The only way I will allow you to stay in this school, hell, the only way I will not rain hellfire upon this school, is if he is immediately removed from your class. Since the other boy you are friends with is his friend too, you also are not allowed to contact him anymore. You will be monitored, and you will start acting more like a Bourgeois needs to act, and I will make sure your (slurs, Audrey was very uncreative for a designer) friend never interacts with you again. He and His parents had better hope me and your father see it as a waste to destroy their little bakery, especially if he has you lying to us, and talking back.” Chloe and Marinette were both in tears, making eye contact as Audrey decided she had done enough, and drug Chloe back to the classroom. Marinette stayed there though, kneeling on the ground, holding herself, becoming a snotty mess, as her maman approached her and wrapped her up in another hug.   
“It’s nothing compared to the foulness that Mrs. Bourgeois just did, I know sweetie, but the school will stop calling you the wrong things starting tomorrow. Since you were already in the hall… did things not go well in your class either?” Sabine knew her daughter well, she knew the right tone of voice, how close she could get, and the safest words to avoid overstimulating her already overstimulated daughter, while simultaneously trying to comfort her. She also was smart enough to know that being in the school for longer than a few more minutes would break Marinette even more.   
Marinette forced herself to stand up, and immediately noticed the sheer crowd of other people that Mrs. Bourgeois had drawn to stare and mock her. Taking a step backwards, away from her maman and the principal, and the secretaries, but allowing her to see more of the school, she made a decision to save time and heartbreak in the future. With her hands grabbing her elbows, as if she was trying to squish herself out of existence, eyes watering freely, dress torn, hair undone, and her clearly injured from her clumsiness, she still managed to stand strong as she yelled for the first time that day. A painful breath after being yelled at, but still a breath.  
“MRS. BOURGEOIS IS WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING SHE SAID. BUT I KNOW YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE ME, AND THAT EVEN IF YOU DO, YOU WILL IGNORE ME TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER. THIS IS ONE THING YOU CAN NOT IGNORE THOUGH. MY NAME IS MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG, AND I AM A GIRL. I ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, YOU ALL WERE TOO STUBBORN TO SEE, AND I WAS TOO SCARED TO CORRECT YOU. MY NAME IS MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG, AND YOU WILL NOT CALL ME BY ANY OTHER NAME.” The adults all looked angry at her for her tone, except for one very proud woman, who ran towards her brave daughter, got a nod, and then hugged her. Marinette spoke again, in a less loud and angry tone, but it was still heard by enough people that she knew everyone would know by tomorrow.  
“Never call me something I am not, because the nicest thing I will do is prove you wrong.” Sabine, smiling like she won the lottery, escorted Marinette outside after Marinette said that simple phrase, proud of her daughter’s ability to stand up for herself, and trying to fight down the anger she felt at her daughter’s treatment by others. The pride would have swiftly been replaced with concern if she knew what Marinette’s new plan for the indefinite future of her schooling was.  
“Mrs. Bourgeois wants to keep Chloe away from me, and any connections to me… so the best way is for me to let Chloe keep everyone else… Maybe she will even be able to befriend Nino again after a while. The only way to let Chloe be safe and have anyone, is to let her have everyone. The more people, the more can comfort her after bully mode, if nothing else.” Marinette thought, tears starting fresh as she realized this was the best path forward. Sabine noticed, and tried to question but Marinette was able to justify it as being from everything else that happened in the last hour. Sabine shoved down her twinge of uncertainty at her daughter's excuse, and tried to believe that was all that was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I PROMISE THE NEXT CHAPTER IS LESS ANGSTY.
> 
> but i mean, you saw the last fic.   
> if marinette was able to fall in love with someone from them giving her an umbrella after she made a harsh but reasonable assumption (which is canon), her years before the show were not good, and this is a prequel to that.
> 
> I promise though, the next two chapters do not hurt as much. Might actually be one though. Thats up in the air still tbh


	5. Marinette, Letting herself become Marinette

The school called later that day, and said that they would give Marinette fully excused absences for the week while they created her new schedule, and that she would not be considered liable for any work done by her new class during the rest of this week. Marinette tried not to think about how much the break in being seen would help Chloe get to keep the rest of her friends, and doubly tried to not feel bitter about her own idea. She was sitting on her bed eating the crumbled pastries that she had felt so gleeful to see packed for her that morning, staring morosely at her dress’ tear, but knowing that she could not be comfortable in other clothes right now. Her parents had realized that too, and hadn’t even suggested that she change out of the dirty, patchwork dress, stained with blood from her scrapes in some places. 

After all the years of everyone being so wrong, it seemed impractical to her that she was so reluctant to do something, even a minor something, that might let the world feel justified doing it again. The thing was, despite her emotions seeming impractical to her, she knew she could not change or stop them. It was no different, she tried to tell herself, than when a texture or specific sound that was fine to everyone else was hellish to her. Her maman and papa had offered to close the bakery for the day, or for one to stay upstairs with her, or for one to just go ahead and help find Marinette clothes. Miserable though she was, the thought of clothes for her, for Marinette, not for who they’d mistook her to be gave her a little thrill. That little thrill was what she held onto, and let be her distraction. 

Thoughts lead to thoughts, which lead to ideas, which lead to inspiration, which can lead to motivation, and soon she had gotten hit by it. She spent the rest of her morning, wiping away tears as they came, but they came less and less frequently as she designed in her sketchbook. Not all of them were great, some were so plain it was clear it was just ideas, some were clearly excuses to practice more complex embroidery, and some were so formal she had no idea when she would ever get to use them if she did make them, but by the time the end of the bakery’s peak hours came to an end, she had a sketchbook filled with nothing but ideas for clothes to sew. As she saw that the peak time had ended, she walked downstairs, carefully, but excitedly, to show her parents what she had designed! She loudly clarified before she fully entered the bakery section, but when close enough she knew they’d be able to hear, “I know obviously not all of these are practical, and some are just very plain and probably cheaper from the store until I get more practice, but I designed some dresses and shirts and pants… things for Marinette. Because-” 

She was shocked when she saw a group of her classmates (… well, former classmates, she supposed) and their parents, including Nino and both of his. Nino’s mom urged Nino towards the register counter, to have him set down what almost looked like a card. She filled with hope until she saw the restrained angry looks on her parents’ faces, and deflated as she realized that her classmates’ presence was not a good sign. Tired of standing at the foot of the staircases and idling, while obviously having interrupted a conversation about herself, she sighed and walked away from the foot of the staircase, towards the main bakery area, and the actual discussion.   
“Hello, welcome to Dupain-Cheng Bakery, my name is Marinette, how can I help you today? I notice that you are putting things on our counters. Do you mean for us to keep them, or for us to help you find the recycling bin?” Some of her classmates cracked slightly at that, small smiles forming at her familiar sass, another feature she had gotten from Chloe and Nino over the last two years. It was not until she thought of Nino’s humor that she let herself look at him again. They made eye contact, but his face was almost as angry as his parents’. 

“Your name is not Marinette, its-” Nino’s father started to speak, and Marinette shot him a mock-concerned look before cutting him off. Sabine and Tom walked up behind her as she spoke.

“Your name is Bison Burnt Eggs, yes? I mean it must be, you look like a Bison Burnt Eggs to me! I also must be such a rude person that if I mix up two similar names, I try to tell the person I called the wrong name that their name is not what they think it is.” Her papa’s heavy hand was light as he patted his daughter on the shoulder to encourage her, and her maman’s light touch was a comforting pressure as she rested her hand on Marinette’s other shoulder, giving her strength to continue.  
“People can make mistakes. If my maman and papa can accept that they were wrong about who they thought I was, why can’t you? I spent years looking for the words to describe what I felt, and months of this year trying to find a simple way to let people know that they made a mistake. Why are you so opposed to the idea that people can not be perfect?” Nino’s father tried to protest, but Nino’s mother’s facial expression changed, as did a few others. “I want to be myself. I got kicked out of class, and banned from seeing one of my friends for doing it… and I know I am lucky despite that. Sometimes when a kid realizes their parents were wrong, if the kid tells the parents, they double down on their incorrect assumption, or kick their child out… what would you do if one of your children, politely, told you that you were wrong about a fact? Would you insist that no, we actually are in Egypt, not France? Would you kick them to the streets if they tried to gently make you see that we’ve always been in France?” Marinette shot a glance at the pile of card like papers on the counter, and tried to hold herself steady. Different conversion therapy recommendations, each advertised like it was something life-saving, as opposed to likely life ending.   
“I see that these papers are all garbage, I am sure you do not intend to leave your garbage with us, so I will go ahead and dispose of them.” Marinette’s maman had apparently noticed at the same time as her daughter, and her tone was filled with the same venom that would be present if it was food trash left next to the register, her and Tom’s arms both full of them as they left to dispose of them. As the angry parents had finally calmed down partially, they were starting to head out the door, knowing that they would not be able to change Marinette’s mind. Tempting fate though it were, Marinette spoke again.  
“I do not demand, and I… hoped, but knew better than to expect. To keep you as my friends. I really did. But, if our time as friends ever met anything… Chloe will need friends more than I do, and her mom has banned us from interacting. You can be her friend, but not mine. If our games of tag and hide and seek, or helping each other in class mattered… please be her friend. Especially you Nino.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left, but it's less long.
> 
> edit notes-> for like a solid hour I think, I had. The entire first 5 chapters in place of chapter 5 I am sorry for your eyes if you checked it then.


	6. Marinette, Finally

Marinette had barely finished recounting the events of when she came out as trans, a story that her partners either did not remember, or did not know, before she was tackled with affection by those who had known her as a child. Adrien, Alya, Kagami and Luka obviously wanted to comfort her as well, but the looks on their faces made it clear that they felt it fair that Alix, Chloe and Nino had first chance.

“I forgot that the first day I stood up to my utterly ridiculous mother was the day you came out! I also forgot how much of a lesbian disaster I was even before I knew I was a lesbian… and She thought the best way to keep me from getting into a relationship would be to prevent me from seeing boys for sleepovers! Just think, if she’d let us stay friends, you would have been my honeybun so much sooner! And I can’t believe that after all this time I did not know about your little scheme to try to let me have friends… and I did what mother would want and bullied you, pushing them away and tossing you aside even more…” Chloe had picked Marinette up from her seat on the couch, and immediately held her bridal style in her lap, holding her girlfriend close to her chest, which neither was opposed to. 

“I forgot that I treated you so poorly afterwards dudette, its amazing you forgave me at all. It’s good that my parents eventually got better, and I am glad that they gave you a formal apology… and the donation to trans organizations was also nice, but wow Marzipan, I treated you poorly.” Nino looked regretful, and it was clear to see that, because with him leaning over her head, and Chloe holding her bridal style, it was pretty much all she could see. She tilted her head upwards to kiss what parts of her boyfriend and girlfriend she could, as a pink haired weight shifted on her stomach. Something Chloe had either failed to consider or not cared about when she picked her girlfriend up to hold her bridal style, was that Alix had been sitting on Marinette’s lap, getting size measurements before they asked about her first dress. 

“Bread bud, I’m glad you’re so nice, we really do not deserve you and all that jazz. But its. Really tempting to get Fluff and see what would happen if we’d done differe-” Alix was cut off by a version of her sticking a head out through a burrow that just appeared, costumed and tired looking. 

“Mini me-> don’t do it. Tried it, made timeline a mess.” Before anyone could comment, even the kwamis, who were all sitting on a miniature living room set on the coffee table, Bunnix had closed her Burrow, and Alix sighed and shifted on her Marinette pillow again, nearly kicking Chloe in mock protest.

“What matters to me, is that you’re here now, and that you changed how you needed to. We all did, and you keep making the choice to be good people now, even though the choice wasn’t even an option for you then. Now, as much as I love my view from this position, I’m cold because our little bunny isn’t very warm, and I demand warmth in the form of cuddles.” Ignoring her decree for a second, Nino, Chloe and Alix acted as one. Alix flipped to be lying belly down on Marinette’s belly, Chloe gave Marinette a gentle kiss on the neck, and Nino did the same on Mari’s lips. Chloe and Nino kept alternating who did what while Marinette blushed, and Alix started dozing off until Luka, Adrien, Kagami, and Alya entangled themselves into the pile on the couch. Work was for later, they had all the time in the world. They were happy, they were safe, and they had each other, and Marinette smiled as she pulled Alix up higher, in more ideal sleep cuddling position. This was more than she would have ever hoped for as a kid, were her last thoughts before falling asleep, smiling at the pressure of her partners all around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhaha you thought it was a prequel!! It was all a ruse! It was a cleverly designed flashback allowing for me to write a cuddle scene. 
> 
> also i tried to hard to make it clear but just in case it wasnt  
> autistic marinette  
> autistic marinette!!  
> pressure stimming autistic marinette!!


End file.
